“Computer makers are developing strategies and devices to challenge Apple Inc.’s iPad, hoping to capitalize on new interest in a category of gadgets that was moribund until recently,” Justin Scheck and Nick Wingfield report for The Wall Street Journal. “In the next few weeks, executives from Hewlett-Packard Co. will meet in the U.S. and Taiwan to tweak prices and features on an upcoming keyboardless computer dubbed the Slate, said two people familiar with the matter.”
“H-P has discussed selling a version of the Slate—similar to the iPad in size and features, and including a cellular connection—for a price below the $629 Apple charges for an equivalent iPad, one of these people said,” Scheck and Wingfield report. “Executives at Dell Inc., Acer Inc. and Sony Corp. say they are all watching Apple as they refine their own products.”
“For years, big hardware and software makers like H-P and Microsoft tried unsuccessfully to turn consumers on to touch-screen portable PCs, though some had keyboards and not all were called tablets,” Scheck and Wingfield report. “A 2001 tablet from Compaq (since acquired by H-P) flopped, and a pronouncement that year by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates that tablets would be the most popular form of PC by 2006 never came to pass. Today, touch-screen PCs with and without keyboards account for less than 1% of world-wide PC sales, according to market research firm Gartner.”
Scheck and Wingfield report, “But the gadgets have gotten renewed attention since Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs revealed the iPad last month. The device, with a 9.7-inch screen, no keyboard, and a wireless Internet hookup, is geared for navigating the Web, reading electronic books and running applications created by others. The iPad, which comes in models priced between $499 and $829, will start shipping in March.”
MacDailyNews Take: And nothing will ever be the same, no matter what the cut-rate, lowball, derivative and tasteless PC box assemblers cobble together.
Full article here.
Peter Svensson reports for The Associated Press, “While there will be a lot of hardware to choose from, the software for smartbooks and tablets needs work. The PC version of Windows doesn’t work on cell phone-style chips, and in any case, isn’t designed for small screens. So manufacturers are mostly turning to Android. But Google didn’t intend Android to run on screens that are bigger than cell phones. Google doesn’t allow Android’s online library of applications, the equivalent of the iPhone’s App Store, to be accessed from smartbooks because it fears the applications won’t work well on large screens.”
Full article here.
Yet again, the rest of the industry waits to take its cue from Apple.
and if Apple decides to jump off a bridge will they be close behind-LOL . No innovation by anyone but Apple
They don’t get it; it’s not the hardware that’s going to make the iPad the Next Great Thing…it’s the software, the interface. As long as PC manufacturers are chained to the Microsoft falling star, they’ll continue to be stuck with the same clunky interface that’s doomed past Tablet PCs.
“Executives at Dell Inc., Acer Inc. and Sony Corp. say they are all watching Apple as they refine (try to copy Apple) their own products.”
Nope,
The PC guys will innovate around the iPad and make something almost as good for a few scheckles less. And all those great bargain hunters out there, (All you Walmart shopers know who you are) will be happy to buy the crap.
And they will proudly drag them out in public and pronounce how it’s just as good at a better price while the things crash, are infected with virus and malware and generally put their electronic and financial assets at risk every time they use them.
But hey, it was cheaper and thus a “better deal”.
“falling star”? I love it !!!
And it is with SOFTWARE that Apple will win here as well. Geeks want their multitasking and tweakability, and the “analysts” will attack apple for not getting on the geek train, but at the end of the day, usability trumps a laundry list of so called features.
The act of copying is the best form of flatery.
This will only give traction to the iPad. Why?
Because it’ll prove Apple have the right concept.
And since these PC guys don’t have the iEcosystem, Apple is the winner.
Greatest fear: Apple becomes so popular that it becomes Microsoft.
May Apple always be somewhat exclusive and the little guy that is fleet of foot. The Tech World needs a company or two like that to survive.
I say let the other companies feed the stragglers and let ’em imitate. It’s all they’ve got!
Apple have forever changed the market without even selling anything yet, all they’ve done is announce the thing. Shows how completely everyone else has failed.
PC assemblers can use Duct Tape to cut down cost dramatically!
Wow, it’s gonna be another scramble. Wonder if anyone can put together anything decent within a year.
“PC assemblers attempt to answer Apple’s iPad”
PC Assembles: “Can you repeat the question?”
“no keyboard”!!! Will they ever understand that for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch the term “no built-in physical keyboard” would be appropriate?!
The PC mfgs have not a clue about creative design, or user friendly software, let alone how the two work together to make a enjoyable computing experience.